Method and apparatus for determining the robustness of memory ce

Details Method and apparatus for determining the robustness of memory ce Method and apparatus for determining the robustness of memory ce

1998-09-30

1999-11-09

Nguyen, Viet Q.

Static information storage and retrieval

Read/write circuit

Noise suppression

365200, 365201, G11C 1140

Patent

active

059826916

ABSTRACT:
Apparatus and methods for determining the robustness of a device to soft errors generated by alpha-particle and/or cosmic ray strikes by measuring the charge Q.sub.c that flow through a node of an equivalent diode structure when the diode structure is impinged by a light pulse with energy equivalent to that of the alpha-particle and/or cosmic ray strikes. In one embodiment, the method includes the steps of producing a light pulse having a light pulse energy, the light pulse energy is at a first light pulse energy; applying the light pulse to the device at a predetermined location, the predetermined location having an area and a geometry; varying the light pulse energy to a second light pulse energy which generates a soft error; detecting soft errors in the device; providing a diode having the same area and geometry as the predetermined location; applying the light pulse with the second light pulse energy to the diode; and determining the amount of charges that flow through the diode. The present invention additionally provides inexpensive methods and apparatus that would accurately simulate an alpha-particle and/or cosmic ray strike in a predetermined area of a memory cell and for comparing different technologies and SRAM/DRAM designs by comparing this pulse energy needed to produce the soft error.

REFERENCES:
patent: 4417325 (1983-11-01), Harari
patent: 4506436 (1985-03-01), Blakeman, Jr. et al.
patent: 4912675 (1990-03-01), Blake et al.
patent: 5320975 (1994-06-01), Cederbaum et al.

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